When Lawrence Anthony learned that the northern white rhino, living in the war-ravaged Congo, was on the very brink of extinction, he knew he had to act. If the world lost the sub-species, it would be the largest land mammal since the woolly mammoth to go extinct. In The Last Rhinos, Anthony recounts his attempts to save these remarkable animals. The demand for rhino horns in the Far East has turned poaching into a dangerous black market that threatens the lives of not just these rare beasts, but also the rangers who protect them.

5 out of 5 stars

What a tribute

By
Elizabeth
on
02-26-14

Dopefiend

By:
Donald Goines

Narrated by:
Kevin Kenerly

Length: 6 hrs and 25 mins

Unabridged

Overall

4.5 out of 5 stars
198

Performance

4.5 out of 5 stars
170

Story

4.5 out of 5 stars
169

Trapped in the festering sore of a major American ghetto, a young man and his girlfriend - both attractive, talented, and full of promise - are inexorably pulled into the living death of the hardcore junkie. It is a horrifying world where addicts will do anything to get their next fix. For 23 years of his young life, Donald Goines lived in the dark, despair-ridden world of the junkie. It started while he was doing military service in Korea and ended with his murder in his late 30s. He had worked up to a hundred-dollars-a-day habit - and out of the agonizing hell came
Dopefiend.

5 out of 5 stars

raw truth

By
shelby
on
12-28-15

Because We Are

A Novel of Haiti

By:
Ted Oswald

Narrated by:
Bahni Turpin

Length: 16 hrs and 44 mins

Unabridged

Overall

4.5 out of 5 stars
344

Performance

4.5 out of 5 stars
312

Story

4 out of 5 stars
312

Ten-year-old orphan Libète has been hardened by the daily struggle to survive in Cité Soleil, Haiti's most infamous slum. But when she and her best friend, Jak, discover a young mother and her baby brutally murdered in a nearby marsh, it's unlike anything she's encountered before. Though initially shocked, the adults of Cité Soleil move on quickly from the event; after all, death is commonplace in this community.

5 out of 5 stars

Absolutely fantastic.

By
JJ
on
11-17-14

Identical

By:
Ellen Hopkins

Narrated by:
Laura Flanagan

Length: 8 hrs and 42 mins

Abridged

Overall

4 out of 5 stars
240

Performance

4.5 out of 5 stars
201

Story

4 out of 5 stars
202

Kaeleigh and Raeanne are 16-year-old identical twins, the daughters of a district court judge father and politician mother running for U.S. Congress. Everything on the surface seems fine, but underneath run very deep and damaging secrets. When the girls were nine, Daddy turned to his beloved Kaeleigh in ways a father never should. Raeanne needs to numb the pain of not being Daddy's favorite; Kaeleigh wants to do everything she can to feel something normal, even if it means cutting herself and vomiting after every binge.

5 out of 5 stars

Amazing!!!!

By
Brandi
on
01-19-11

A Mother's Choice

By:
Kristin Noel Fischer

Narrated by:
Renata Friedman

Length: 7 hrs and 34 mins

Unabridged

Overall

4.5 out of 5 stars
166

Performance

4.5 out of 5 stars
156

Story

4.5 out of 5 stars
156

For 30 years, Nadine Kingsley has kept a heart-wrenching secret. When a letter arrives threatening to reveal the truth that could destroy her tight-knit family, Nadine embarks on a difficult journey to explain her painful decision, especially to her youngest daughter, Autumn.

5 out of 5 stars

LOVE this book!

By
Jeannine
on
02-09-16

Casting the First Stone

By:
Kimberla Lawson Roby

Narrated by:
Caroline Clay

Length: 10 hrs and 53 mins

Unabridged

Overall

4.5 out of 5 stars
437

Performance

4.5 out of 5 stars
349

Story

4.5 out of 5 stars
356

The Black household is swiftly deteriorating. Frustrated and angry at her prosperous preacher husband's obvious infidelities, Tanya cannot believe the man she once loved has been replaced by this pathological liar obsessed with material wealth.

5 out of 5 stars

I loved this book

By
Sequonica
on
10-21-08

The Last Rhinos

My Battle to Save One of the World's Greatest Creatures

By:
Lawrence Anthony,
Graham Spence

Narrated by:
Simon Vance

Length: 9 hrs and 36 mins

Unabridged

Overall

5 out of 5 stars
454

Performance

5 out of 5 stars
432

Story

5 out of 5 stars
431

When Lawrence Anthony learned that the northern white rhino, living in the war-ravaged Congo, was on the very brink of extinction, he knew he had to act. If the world lost the sub-species, it would be the largest land mammal since the woolly mammoth to go extinct. In The Last Rhinos, Anthony recounts his attempts to save these remarkable animals. The demand for rhino horns in the Far East has turned poaching into a dangerous black market that threatens the lives of not just these rare beasts, but also the rangers who protect them.

5 out of 5 stars

What a tribute

By
Elizabeth
on
02-26-14

Dopefiend

By:
Donald Goines

Narrated by:
Kevin Kenerly

Length: 6 hrs and 25 mins

Unabridged

Overall

4.5 out of 5 stars
198

Performance

4.5 out of 5 stars
170

Story

4.5 out of 5 stars
169

Trapped in the festering sore of a major American ghetto, a young man and his girlfriend - both attractive, talented, and full of promise - are inexorably pulled into the living death of the hardcore junkie. It is a horrifying world where addicts will do anything to get their next fix. For 23 years of his young life, Donald Goines lived in the dark, despair-ridden world of the junkie. It started while he was doing military service in Korea and ended with his murder in his late 30s. He had worked up to a hundred-dollars-a-day habit - and out of the agonizing hell came
Dopefiend.

5 out of 5 stars

raw truth

By
shelby
on
12-28-15

Because We Are

A Novel of Haiti

By:
Ted Oswald

Narrated by:
Bahni Turpin

Length: 16 hrs and 44 mins

Unabridged

Overall

4.5 out of 5 stars
344

Performance

4.5 out of 5 stars
312

Story

4 out of 5 stars
312

Ten-year-old orphan Libète has been hardened by the daily struggle to survive in Cité Soleil, Haiti's most infamous slum. But when she and her best friend, Jak, discover a young mother and her baby brutally murdered in a nearby marsh, it's unlike anything she's encountered before. Though initially shocked, the adults of Cité Soleil move on quickly from the event; after all, death is commonplace in this community.

5 out of 5 stars

Absolutely fantastic.

By
JJ
on
11-17-14

Identical

By:
Ellen Hopkins

Narrated by:
Laura Flanagan

Length: 8 hrs and 42 mins

Abridged

Overall

4 out of 5 stars
240

Performance

4.5 out of 5 stars
201

Story

4 out of 5 stars
202

Kaeleigh and Raeanne are 16-year-old identical twins, the daughters of a district court judge father and politician mother running for U.S. Congress. Everything on the surface seems fine, but underneath run very deep and damaging secrets. When the girls were nine, Daddy turned to his beloved Kaeleigh in ways a father never should. Raeanne needs to numb the pain of not being Daddy's favorite; Kaeleigh wants to do everything she can to feel something normal, even if it means cutting herself and vomiting after every binge.

5 out of 5 stars

Amazing!!!!

By
Brandi
on
01-19-11

A Mother's Choice

By:
Kristin Noel Fischer

Narrated by:
Renata Friedman

Length: 7 hrs and 34 mins

Unabridged

Overall

4.5 out of 5 stars
166

Performance

4.5 out of 5 stars
156

Story

4.5 out of 5 stars
156

For 30 years, Nadine Kingsley has kept a heart-wrenching secret. When a letter arrives threatening to reveal the truth that could destroy her tight-knit family, Nadine embarks on a difficult journey to explain her painful decision, especially to her youngest daughter, Autumn.

5 out of 5 stars

LOVE this book!

By
Jeannine
on
02-09-16

Casting the First Stone

By:
Kimberla Lawson Roby

Narrated by:
Caroline Clay

Length: 10 hrs and 53 mins

Unabridged

Overall

4.5 out of 5 stars
437

Performance

4.5 out of 5 stars
349

Story

4.5 out of 5 stars
356

The Black household is swiftly deteriorating. Frustrated and angry at her prosperous preacher husband's obvious infidelities, Tanya cannot believe the man she once loved has been replaced by this pathological liar obsessed with material wealth.

5 out of 5 stars

I loved this book

By
Sequonica
on
10-21-08

My Fight / Your Fight

By:
Ronda Rousey

Narrated by:
Ronda Rousey,
RC Bray

Length: 8 hrs and 39 mins

Unabridged

Overall

4.5 out of 5 stars
282

Performance

4.5 out of 5 stars
260

Story

4.5 out of 5 stars
259

In this inspiring and moving book, Ronda Rousey, Olympic medalist in judo, reigning UFC women's bantamweight champion, and Hollywood star, describes her difficult path to glory. Marked by her signature charm, barbed wit, and undeniable power, Rousey's account of the toughest fights of her life - in and outside the Octagon - reveals the painful loss of her father when she was eight years old, the intensity of her judo training, her battles with love, her meteoric rise to fame, and the secret behind her undefeated UFC record.

5 out of 5 stars

Amazingly written

By
Denise French
on
11-20-16

Madness

A Bipolar Life

By:
Marya Hornbacher

Narrated by:
Tavia Gilbert

Length: 9 hrs and 42 mins

Unabridged

Overall

4.5 out of 5 stars
329

Performance

4.5 out of 5 stars
270

Story

4.5 out of 5 stars
269

When Marya Hornbacher published her acclaimed first book,
Wasted: A Memoir of Anorexia and Bulimia, she did not yet have a piece of shattering knowledge: the underlying reason for her distress. At age 24, Hornbacher was diagnosed with Type I rapid-cycle bipolar, the most severe form of bipolar disease there is.

4 out of 5 stars

Forget Prozac Nation - this what it is really like

By
Lamont Crook
on
07-16-08

Damage Control

By:
Robert Dugoni

Narrated by:
Christopher Lane

Length: 10 hrs and 25 mins

Unabridged

Overall

4.5 out of 5 stars
436

Performance

4.5 out of 5 stars
385

Story

4.5 out of 5 stars
384

A rising star at her prestigious Seattle law firm, Dana Hill knows all about stress. She pours herself into her work and family with all the energy she has. But her carefully balanced life is about to be turned upside down. First a frightening medical diagnosis forces her to reassess her roles as a lawyer, mother, and wife to a man she suddenly no longer trusts. Then her life is rocked further by the shocking and brutal murder of her twin brother.

4 out of 5 stars

Better than average mystery/thriller

By
Tim
on
10-08-15

Just Mercy

A Story of Justice and Redemption

By:
Bryan Stevenson

Narrated by:
Bryan Stevenson

Length: 11 hrs and 4 mins

Unabridged

Overall

5 out of 5 stars
5,110

Performance

4.5 out of 5 stars
4,623

Story

5 out of 5 stars
4,601

Bryan Stevenson was a young lawyer when he founded the Equal Justice Initiative, a legal practice dedicated to defending those most desperate and in need: the poor, the wrongly condemned, and women and children trapped in the farthest reaches of our criminal justice system. One of his first cases was that of Walter McMillian, a young man who was sentenced to die for a notorious murder he insisted he didn’t commit.

5 out of 5 stars

Made me question justice, peers and myself.

By
Kristy VL
on
04-17-15

Dispatches from Pluto

Lost and Found in the Mississippi Delta

By:
Richard Grant

Narrated by:
Shaun Grindell

Length: 10 hrs and 10 mins

Unabridged

Overall

4.5 out of 5 stars
359

Performance

4.5 out of 5 stars
323

Story

4.5 out of 5 stars
317

Richard Grant and his girlfriend were living in a shoebox apartment in New York City when they decided on a whim to buy an old plantation house in the Mississippi Delta.
Dispatches from Pluto is their journey of discovery into this strange and wonderful American place. On a remote, isolated strip of land, three miles beyond the tiny community of Pluto, Richard and his girlfriend, Mariah, embark on a new life. They learn to hunt, grow their own food, and fend off alligators, snakes, and varmints galore.

4 out of 5 stars

Loved this

By
Gladys S. Whitney
on
01-20-16

Ordinary Light

A Memoir

By:
Tracy K. Smith

Narrated by:
Tracy K. Smith

Length: 11 hrs and 13 mins

Unabridged

Overall

4 out of 5 stars
116

Performance

4.5 out of 5 stars
104

Story

4 out of 5 stars
103

Tracy K. Smith has a fairly typical upbringing in suburban California: the youngest in a family of five children raised with limitless affection and a firm belief in God by a stay-at-home mother and an engineer father. But after spending a summer in Alabama at her grandmother's home, she returns to California with a new sense of what it means for her to be black: from her mother's memories of picking cotton as a girl in her father's field for pennies a bushel to her parents' involvement in the Civil Rights Movement.

5 out of 5 stars

Simply spoken - poetic

By
CarolynneRHarris
on
04-27-15

A Woman's Place

By:
Lynn Austin

Narrated by:
Christina Moore

Length: 14 hrs and 33 mins

Unabridged

Overall

4.5 out of 5 stars
406

Performance

5 out of 5 stars
346

Story

4.5 out of 5 stars
344

While their men fight, America's women produce what's necessary for victory. In a Michigan shipyard, four female co-workers forge a strong bond of friendship that, combined with faith, helps them to overcome oppression, despair, and tragedy - and find love in unlikely places.

5 out of 5 stars

Complex insights on personal perspective.

By
Sara
on
09-17-13

Drunk Mom

A Memoir

By:
Jowita Bydlowska

Narrated by:
Meredith Mitchell

Length: 8 hrs and 21 mins

Unabridged

Overall

4 out of 5 stars
228

Performance

4.5 out of 5 stars
200

Story

4 out of 5 stars
199

A best seller in its native Canada,
Drunk Mom is a gripping, brutally honest memoir of motherhood in the shadow of alcoholism. Three years after giving up drinking, Jowita Bydlowska found herself throwing back a glass of champagne like it was ginger ale. It was a special occasion: a party celebrating the birth of her first child. It also marked Bydlowska's immediate, full-blown return to crippling alcoholism.

5 out of 5 stars

A not very lovely story that I love anyway.

By
Alixandra Hice
on
01-12-15

Hustlin’ Divas

By:
De’nesha Diamond

Narrated by:
Honey Jones

Length: 11 hrs and 10 mins

Unabridged

Overall

4.5 out of 5 stars
336

Performance

4.5 out of 5 stars
254

Story

4.5 out of 5 stars
257

In South Memphis, four women live in high-stakes, high-risk territory. Ta’Shara has no interest in following her sister into the street game, but when she falls in love with the brother of a rival, her own sister orders a severe punishment.

5 out of 5 stars

This book was soooo good!

By
Khara
on
12-13-10

Scores

How I Opened the Hottest Strip Club in New York City, Was Extorted out of Millions by the Gambino Family, and Became One of the Most Successful Mafia Informants in FBI History

By:
Michael D. Blutrich

Narrated by:
Michael D. Blutrich

Length: 10 hrs and 52 mins

Unabridged

Overall

4.5 out of 5 stars
1,801

Performance

4.5 out of 5 stars
1,675

Story

4.5 out of 5 stars
1,669

Meet Michael Blutrich, mild-mannered New York lawyer and founder of Scores, the hottest strip club in New York City history, funded by the proceeds of an insurance embezzlement scheme. All Blutrich wanted was to lay low, make the club a success, and put his criminal acts behind him. But the Mafia got involved, and soon the FBI came knocking. Scores became wildly popular, in part thanks to Blutrich's ability to successfully bend the rules of adult entertainment. Unfortunately for Blutrich, it would all soon implode.

5 out of 5 stars

Seductive narration about fortunes and betrayals

By
Greeny
on
02-06-17

Inhuman Bondage

The Rise and Fall of Slavery in the New World

By:
David Brion Davis

Narrated by:
Raymond Todd

Length: 16 hrs and 43 mins

Unabridged

Overall

4.5 out of 5 stars
192

Performance

4.5 out of 5 stars
118

Story

4.5 out of 5 stars
120

In
Inhuman Bondage, David Brion Davis sums up a lifetime of insight. He looks at slavery in the American South; the rise of the Cotton Kingdom; the daily life of slaves; the destructive internal long-distance slave trade; the sexual exploitation of slaves; the emergence of an African-American culture; and much more. A definitive history by a writer deeply immersed in the subject,
Inhuman Bondage links together the profits of slavery, the pain of the enslaved, and the legacy of racism.

5 out of 5 stars

Very Useful Contribution

By
Biggar Thomas
on
06-14-08

Without Mercy

Obsession and Murder Under the Influence

By:
Gary Provost

Narrated by:
Kevin Pierce

Length: 8 hrs and 35 mins

Unabridged

Overall

4.5 out of 5 stars
441

Performance

4.5 out of 5 stars
406

Story

4.5 out of 5 stars
404

On any Sunday morning in the Florida Redlands, Dee Casteel might have served you pancakes at the IHOP. She was a hard-working, cheerful waitress, one of the nicest people you'd ever want to know. She was also a three-bottle-a-day alcoholic, hopelessly in love with the IHOP's manager, Allen Bryant. Bryant wanted his live-in lover, IHOP owner Art Venecia, dead. And Dee Casteel helped him to arrange it.

5 out of 5 stars

I Thoroughly Enjoyed This Book

By
Stephanie
on
02-08-17

Publisher's Summary

Jennifer Thompson was raped at knifepoint by a man who broke into her apartment while she slept. She was able to escape and eventually identified Ronald Cotton as her attacker. Ronald insisted that she was mistaken - but Jennifer's positive identification was the compelling evidence that put him behind bars. After 11 years, Ronald was allowed to take a DNA test that proved his innocence. He was released after serving more than a decade in prison for a crime he never committed.

Two years later, Jennifer and Ronald met face to face - and forged an unlikely friendship that changed both of their lives. In their own words, Jennifer and Ronald unfold the harrowing details of their tragedy, and challenge our ideas of memory and judgment while demonstrating the profound nature of human grace and the healing power of forgiveness.

Story

Listen for the story not the writing

The story was compelling and they did a good job of building anticipation even though you know the outcome - particularly in the beginning. The writing itself was ok. The female reader was a little too sing-songy but I liked the male reader. It did prompt me to research a little more about it on the internet. I gave it for stars because of the subject matter and how sad yet positive it ends up. I'd have only given it three based on the writing itself.

Story and reading are layered and complex

If you could sum up Picking Cotton in three words, what would they be?

Heart-wrenching, heart-warming, layered

What was one of the most memorable moments of Picking Cotton?

The description of Ronald Cotton's decision to not use a shiv in prison on an intended enemy. Based on advice from his father.

What does Richard Allen and Karen White bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

Richard Allen's voice is mellifluous and entrancing. He does a first-class job of presenting that his character is flawed but innocent and that he retains hos hope and dignity through and unjust system and process.

Karen White makes her character - whom readers could so easily dismiss as an antagonist - a hero in her own right. She helps us to understand how a very "good" person could be the principal agent in assisting something "bad" to happen.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

I listened to this book while training for a long-distance walking event and could literally forget about the 100 degree heat and sweltering humidity and walk for 2, 4, even 6 hours entranced in the story.

Any additional comments?

This book explores very complex issues that arose from a true-life situation that can only be described as a no-win situation for its victims involved. But these people gutted it out and survived to go on and find true happiness and friendship together. I cried in sadness, anger, fear, and ultimately in heartfelt cheer. Who needs fiction when we have such rich and layered true life stories. Stories everybody should hear and know.

A Story of Healing

This is one of those feel-good stories that cuts across racial and socio-economic boundaries. The story is well-told, though not particularly well-written. The male narration is excellent, you can almost see Cotton's face as his parts of the story are spoken a distinctive "Nor-uth Curolinuh" drawl. Worth buying at the discounted price, but not worth spending a credit on. I'm cheap.

Excellent Listen!

Couldn't stop thinking about what would happen next. Great use of first person storying telling. This story is unbelievable and shocking. I am a criminal defense attorney and I teach undergrad classes. I have assigned this book to my many students who want to become law enforcement officers. not everything is as it seems!

Reformation of our Justice System is essential!

Such an Amazing Story

This is a true tale of two people who were victimized by a crime. One was victimized by the offender and the other was victimized by faulty eyewitness testimony and wrongful conviction. Ronald Cotton never gave up and fought for himself. The truth came out and he was exonerated. He was strong enough to forgive Jennifer and form a friendship with her. they worked together to reach out to wrongfully convicted people and reform eyewitness testimony.